Learn How to Stay On Course

By understanding your terrain, knowing your pace, and reading the map regularly you can stay on course wherever you are.

Review by: The Backpacker Editors

Share

Share:

Share:

Read the map regularly. Sure it sounds obvious, but many hikers look at the topo only when they’re lost.

Visualize the terrain ahead based on the topo’s contour lines. If the area doesn’t look as you imagined, verify your location on the map immediately.

Know your pace so you can calculate the time it’ll take to get to a landmark. You’ll be tipped off if it takes unusually long. Figure out your pace by timing how long it takes you to hike a mile wearing a pack.

Use a compass to verify your general direction and orient yourself with the map, but don’t expect it to tell you where to go. You have to study the map for that.

Never wander when you’re lost, and always keep a level head. As soon as the landscape doesn’t jibe with your map, backtrack to a place you can clearly identify on your map and start over.

Daydream later. Keep track of the terrain you’re traversing, as well as any changes in direction.

Best prize ever: You could win ALL 13 of our 2015 Editors' Choice Award-winning products. That includes an Osprey Packs, a NEMO Equipment sleeping bag, a Big Agnes tent, a Sea to Summit - Outdoor Gear X-Pot, La Sportiva shoes, and a Snow Peak stove. And we still have 7 more products to announce next week! Enter early and often! http://goo.gl/RGcG4o #EC2015

#EC2015 Gold award alert: When the Snow Peak GigaPower stove came out in 1999, we gave it an Editors' Choice award. All this time later, it's still tiny, powerful, and affordable, and get this: it costs even less. See why it's our latest #EC2015 winner.
Read the review: http://bit.ly/1DAHv8A
Watch video: http://bit.ly/1LSXHWx
Enter to win one, along with the rest of this year's EC gear: http://goo.gl/RGcG4o